Code Coverage is a measurement of how many lines, statements, or blocks of your code are tested using your suite of automated tests. It’s an essential metric to understand the quality of your QA efforts. Code coverage shows you how much of your application is not covered by automated tests and is therefore vulnerable to defects. Code coverage is typically …

VisualVM is a Java profiler, one of the several types of Java performance tools (to see more of our favorite Java performance tools, check out this post). In today’s post, we’ll take a look at VisualVM, how it works, and some integrations and alternatives. A Definition of VisualVM VisualVM is a powerful tool that provides a visual interface to see deep and …

Traditional IT monitoring has revolved around monitoring the infrastructures and servers. As you move to the cloud, it is possible that you don’t have either of those things. You could deploy your app via a service like Azure App Services and rely on Azure’s hosted Redis and SQL offerings. You could literally have access to zero servers. In the cloud, …

When you hear the term “software testing,” do you think about one particular type of test — such as functional testing or regression testing — or do you immediately start visualizing the complex, interconnected web of test types and techniques that comprise the broad world of software testing? Most experienced developers understand that software testing isn’t a singular approach, although, …

Performance testing is a form of software testing that focuses on how a system running the system performs under a particular load. Performance testing should give organizations the diagnostic information they need to eliminate bottlenecks. You can find more information about types, steps and best practices here. This article provides insights and scenarios on performance testing from a business perspective. How Performance Testing Impacts …

One of the biggest challenges for development teams is having good visibility into production deployments. It is nearly impossible to track down application problems without access to critical data. Developers need access to a range of things, including application performance reporting, configurations, log files and more. Does DevOps create or solve security challenges? Possible DevOps Security Issues DevOps typically refers …

I’ll understand if you read the title of this post and smirked. I probably would have done so, opening it up only to see what profound wisdom awaited me. Review the code, Captain Obvious. So yes, rest assured, I understand the easy assumption that one can ascertain a codebase’s quality by opening it up and starting to review it. …

Every developer’s toolkit needs a good source code repository host; a good host for your code is especially useful for DevOps team collaboration and working with Open Source projects. There are many source code repository hosts available online, from the widely-used GitHub and Bitbucket to the lesser-known yet useful repo hosts catering to specific needs. Each one appeals to different …

Application Performance Management (APM) solutions are a must-have for Agile development teams, and when implemented correctly, they can save substantial amounts of time, create a better end user experience, and improve overall development operations. (Naturally, we’re big on APM – it’s what we do.) The key to success, though, is implementing systems and solutions that are aligned with larger business goals and …

Does your team have a testing strategy? In 2017, I have a hard time imagining that wouldn’t at least have some strategy, however rudimentary. Unlike a couple of decades ago, you hear less and less about people just changing code on the production server and hoping for the best. At the very least, you probably have a QA group or …

I’ve spent a number of years, now, writing software. At the risk of dating myself, I worked on software in the early 2000s. Back then, you couldn’t take quite as much for granted. For example, while organizations considered source control a good practice, forgoing it wouldn’t have constituted lunacy the way it does today. As a result of the different …

We’ve talked a lot about Agile development and DevOps — particularly, the always-pressing need to rapidly ship new versions of their code and update their products. But when it comes to evaluating the productivity of your development teams, what metrics matter most? Should you merely be concerned with deadlines and time sheets, or should you focus on customer satisfaction to evaluate …

ASP.NET Core is the latest version of ASP.NET. It is built from the ground up using .NET Core, the lightweight, composable new .NET Framework. Some people love it, some don’t. However, this is the future. Microsoft will move forward with .NET Core and in the future, the regular, full-fledged versions will go away. I like ASP.NET core a lot. It …

We talked a bit about the Software Development Life Cycle (SDLC) in a recent post, but today, we’re going to dig a little deeper into one particular and crucial element in the testing phase, particularly for Agile development: regression testing. Definition of Regression Testing Regression testing refers to the process of testing a changed or updated computer program to make …

We’ve used Azure for nearly five years at Stackify; in fact, we built Retrace with Azure in mind. But is Azure the right cloud for you? The battle between Azure and AWS is heated, so we decided to see how they measure up in this head-to-head comparison. (Get a side-by-side, feature-by-feature comparison chart including Google Compute.) Customers love Amazon Web Services …

The easiest way to compare the big cloud services players is by evaluating products, services, and features in a direct comparison to determine which cloud best meets your needs. So we’ve done just that, pitting Azure, AWS, and Google Cloud against each other in this head-to-head comparison chart. (For a detailed discussion comparing Azure and AWS, check out this post.) Microsoft …

A developer team lead is responsible for not just designing and writing code, but for the coordination of an entire development team. Team leads often transition from a role as a developer, QA tester, or other hands-on technical role to the position of team leader, but the transition isn’t always an easy one. So what makes a successful developer team lead? What …

Agile development has created a process for developers to rapidly ship a new version of their code. DevOps is the next step in the process. It is the ability to help get that code to production as fast as possible. What do development teams need to embrace DevOps? DevOps should be about empowering your development team to be able to do …

Poorly managed development projects are bound to crash eventually. It’s likely happened to you a dozen of times already. While writing code can be a lot of fun, managing code and dependencies can quickly become a maze of its own when you’re dealing with the continuous growth of your codebase and feature branches. At Stackify, we aim to make the …

DevOps has been a hot topic for the last several years. I have always had a love/hate relationship with the term. Most argue it as all about team culture and collaboration. Vendors have done everything they can to latch their products onto the DevOps bandwagon. As you will read below, I have my own opinion about what is DevOps and …